The Gruul are a ferocious, if ragtag, coaltion of tribes and clans who live unfettered by the shackles of civilization. Only two things can unite them: a threat large enough to endanger them all and the the unquestioned might of the ferocious cyclops, Borborygmos.

This deck is focused on creatures that embody the primal rage of the Gruul, their might-makes-right attitude, and their only real concern: filling their bellies.

Listen to the message of our Grand Envoy, Teysa Karlov! She has deemed it necessary to finally quell the sad dream of freedom among the Gruul, and bring their power under our own. The will of the Orzhov is clear in this matter: the Gruul clans live without paying homage to our power and wealth; therefore, they must face the consequences of their lack of subjugation.

The Orzhov, as a guild, is defensive and simultaneously offensive. Their tools attempt to control the game and slowly bleed their opponents to death. This is obtained by utilizing cards which serve multiple purposes. The inspiration for this deck stems a lot from Jade Monolith. In the early part of a game, the small creatures in the deck can provide pressure or counter aggro creatures. The Monolith allows these same small creatures to block and then be turned into 1/1 flying Spirits in the late game, thus creating endless blockers. If indestructible is given to these same small creatures, then bingo! Big creatures can similarly either deal damage to opponents for an effect, or combine with Jade Monolith for effects while blocking.

In terms of flavor, the death of small creatures to Teysa's effect represents the Orzhov Syndicate's requirement of debts to be paid even in death. It is not enough for a knight or a cleric to serve the Orzhov their entire life; death is only the beginning. When indestructible is involved, this is the closest we can get to creating Thrulls (soulless bodies) from regular creatures--more or less.

The other non-creature cards are mostly used as support: ramping, drawing cards, removal, or negating the loss of life required for the deck to function. Some of these cards also work well with Jade Monolith. The Ring of Xathrid can regenerate a creature and still allow a Spirit to be created. Orzhov Charm returns a creature before it dies. Evangelize forces an opposing creature to bear the consequences of their debt to the Orzhov. Finally, Trinisphere is the Legacy/Vintage inclusion which all of these decks tend to have; however, this is not the only reason for its inclusion. An early Trinisphere can help prevent an early swarm and ramp from opposing decks, while a mid-to-late Trinisphere can suffocate combo decks. Furthermore, Trinisphere is close to the flavor of Orzhov decks: what better way to force opponents to pay the debts they were previously unaware of?

Finally, there needs to be an explanation of some of the card exclusions. Why is generic reanimation and Zombies not included in this deck? My answer is they don't fit the Orzhov theme: Zombies and reanimation aren't common in the Orzhov-controlled districts because the Orzhov use dead bodies to make Thrulls. This is a distinct divergence from traditional Black-based decks due to the inclusion of White. In this deck I have placed a Legendary Rat, an Avatar, and a couple Kor creatures, because these support the theme of the deck while allowing for exciting and powerful combinations with other cards.

The exclusion of any Planeswalkers is similarly simple: most of them would have nothing to do with the Orzhov flavor-wise. The only Orzhov planeswalker creates Vampire tokens, which is a creature type more suited to the Golgari or Dimir. While some of their abilities would be certainly useful in a deck such as this, it would be up to the buyer to find and make changes to include them.

The Simic Combine has activated project Kraj, and it has absorbed all the cytoplast in Ravnica. Kraj's new target is the Cult of Rakdos, for this guild may be the only one strong enough to stop it from consuming all of Ravnica.

This deck is my take on an Experiment Kraj mutant deck. My interpretation of mutant includes cards relating to mutations, evolution, and growth.

My choice of creatures is representative of this as seen from cards with mutant creature type or by looking mutant-like in the art. I chose to include monsters from Theros as they are able to grow to incredible size and allow Kraj to become monstrous. There are also enchantments to further mutate my creatures and instants and sorceries to mutate Rakdos creatures into (relatively) harmless critters.

Inspiration:The word "kraj" has three meanings; one in Czech and Slovak, one in Polish and one is Serbo-Croatian. One is "region" (in Polish and also in Czech and Slovak "country") the second is "edge" (Czech) and the third is "end" (Serbo-Croatian) (Russian word "kraj" has all the above meanings). Either the second option was used here, meaning "the edge of evolution", or the third meaning "the end of evolution."

Dimir spies report the Selesnya Enclave have been rapidly outgrowing their territory. Find out what their endgame is, and assign agents to dismantle their plan.

The deck is constructed around the three UB Legendary creatures, each able to command the deck to match the player's style: Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, Dralnu, Lich Lord and Sygg, River Cutthroat. Lazav is the featured commander, with the deck having a mill theme as means for Lazav to copy creatures from your opponents’ graveyards. Dralnu allows for a different play style when leading the deck, being able to reuse the instants and sorceries that are used or milled into your own graveyard. As the third commander, Sygg pushes the strategy into card advantage territory.

Representing House Dimir, the creatures in this build include rogues, wizards and assassins. Merfolk are also well represented, as a possible direction for the deck to be modified with Sygg. A few cards in the deck care about these creature types, including Drowner of Secrets, Information Dealer, Sigil Tracer and Sage of Fables.

We must not allow the establishment to stifle Izzet Innovation! I call all Izzet into battle against the Orzhov Syndicate for their attempts to undermine Izzet Progress across Ravnica.

Izzet Innovations focuses around the trial-and-error process of discovery and invention. There are lots of looters (including Dack) and lots of little cantrip artifacts. These work well with Niv-Mizzet mechanically, but they also represent of wading through a lot of chaff before you get to the really great ideas. Similarly, Goblin Welder is a strong card and helps this deck be able to win, but he also represents the idea of going back to the drawing board and trying and old idea to see it if will work better this time around.

The deck also has several cards that focus on "borrowing" another player's idea if it's a good one: Dack, Volition Reins, Thada Adel. (I didn't want to over-emphasize a generically powerful effect like Control Magic, but it was worth giving a nod and the effect is useful to have anyway.)

This deck intentionally avoids infinite combos, but I've included some strong synergies, such as Future Sight + Sensei’s Divining Top and Mirran Spy + Niv/Looters with a whole mess of very cheap artifacts. These obviously interact quite well with Niv and Psychosis Crawler. The other primary way to win is just to a have a REALLY big idea. I.E., a Monstrous Colossus of Akros. (Blightsteel is boring.)

Counters, Aftershock, and bounce spells are really just there to provide some extra interaction. Since this deck isn't trying to anything too inherently broken, it needs to be able to stop bad stuff from happening to it.

In general, this deck aims to capture the feel of an inventor just going through a whole mess of concepts to find the right idea. Relative to most Niv decks, it tries to play a very fair game with cards that work well together and reinforce the main theme, rather than going for pure power.

“Ah yes, there we are. We, the Magewrights of the Izzet League, do hereby challenge the Biomancers of the Simic Combine to a contest of SCIENCE! For many years now, rumours have been floating around the streets of Ravnica that the League has gone soft, dull, and malleable, as if the experiments that we perform for the good of all citizens and our genius has been surpassed by the Combine’s genetic manipulations. But I say, ‘NAY,’ to this!”

Fizz…

“The Simic Combine, whilst utterly inspired in their methodology, cannot compare to the sheer brilliance of the League’s designs, and for too long have the suggestions that their experiments are better than ours gone on. It is time to quash this gossip once and for all!”

Fizz-spark…

“The Izzet League therefore invites all of the fair citizens of Ravnica to come marvel at our combined fair of science, to be held in the Transguild Promenade on the morrow. It will truly be a momentous occasio…”

BOOM!

*Cough.**Cough.*

“Hmm… I think that went rather well, didn’t it?”

The Izzet League marches to war! Or, more likely, to a battle of wits against the other scientific guild, the Simic Combine. And what better way to prove their intellectual superiority than with an experiment-off.

Despite the background of Izzet as experimenters supreme, their set mechanics (Replicate and Overload) do very little to replicate any sense of experimentation. But there is one area of Magic where there is a sense of excitement, wonder, and, "Izzet gonna work?" And that, my friends, would be with the "flip a coin" mechanic. There is truly a sense of the unknown with each and every flip of a coin and that, to me, is where the Izzet League should reside. There are also a few cards that have random outcomes; these fit in this same area.

There are three Commanders supplied with this deck, in the same way that all ten of the existing preconstructed decks have done so. The main Commander (who would be on the front of the packaging) is Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius. I took care to stay away from his earlier, more combo-friendly counterpart because I feel the pre-cons are aimed more towards newer players and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind can draw a lot of hatred sometimes (not to mention that the Firemind has already had a release in Duel Decks: Izzet vs. Golgari). The two other Commanders in this deck both represent various aspects of the Izzet League and of the Blue-Red color combination; Melek, Izzet Paragon is all about copying spells for fun and profit whilst Keranos, God of Storms is more about the random aspect I discussed above. I did consider Nin, the Pain Artist as an alternative to Keranos, but she occupies a very similar space to Niv-Mizzet (spend mana to do damage and draw cards), and Jhoira of the Ghitu is clearly a very powerful card but I feel she doesn't really embody many of the experimental aspects of Izzet (not to mention is another card that does combo really well).

The key card to the coin flip strategy is Krark's Thumb, and there are a small number of tutors designed to see it come out earlier than not (hopefully). The coin flip cards, with the exception of Izzet's very own Ral Zarek, have all been chosen specifically that they require winning the coin flip so as to not confuse players with regard to the deck's alternative win condition, Chance Encounter.

The creatures are a mix of Izzet-related and those that work well with Instants and Sorceries. There are also a large amount of Izzet-related cards in other areas and specifically none dedicated to other Guilds; the exception is Hypervolt Grasp, which was printed incorrectly in its original incarnation and is included here so that the watermark can be updated appropriately.

All entries are in, and I have complete the QC on conforming to the challenge required rarity counts and verified no reserve list cards are used. I'm putting a placeholder (teaser) for entries now, and will post all entries this evening.